My Passport is running ritch..? Or is it something else? Ramblin where are ya..

[gentlejax2]

Its the wifes car so I never really drive it unless we go somewhere together in it. I havnt seen it smoking and it does have 160K on it right now.

I know most cars run ritch while cold until computer adjusts but could there be anything else that will cause it too run ritch?

I am basically trying to sell it. the truck looks fantastic and it runs fine but I had a guy look at it and put his finger in tailpipe and it had black on it.

He looked at it and basically said thanks but didnt say anything else.

me not being an expert but not being a total idiot am not sure what the "finger" test told him...

so I am asking some of you other Rodeo/Passport guys if you know and what I can do about it.

as far as I know the car doesnt smoke except a little when its cold but no more than what i have seen on any other car when cold.

I watched the wife leave for work the other day and didnt see any smoke when she left.

thanks for the advice in advance!

Mike Z

[Ramblin Fever]

I've got to tell you that a lot of vehicles have black pipes and there isn't a thing wrong with 95% of them.

In fact the current Rodeo I have is the ONLY vehicle I have ever owned that the pipe isn't black.

My '91 Rodeo 3.1L Chevy engine had over 170K or so, can't remember exactly now, but it was up there, it had a black pipe for nearly all of the 11yrs that I owned that truck. RAN beautifully.

If it's running rich, you'll feel it in the idle, you won't see it out the pipe, i.e. smoke, unless it's REAL rich.

Few things to check on though, spark plugs, O2's, EGR, Throttle body - make sure they're all good and clean, and these will dramatically improve on idle/performance, etc.

Why you selling the old truck?

[gentlejax2]

well lets see, plugs are fairly new even though I dont rember what I put in there.. O2 sensor..maybe dont know about that one..looks fairly new also..

EGR...where's that located?

I work at a car lot and unless they are new then most of them have some black in the tailpipe also....just wondered if the guy had some magic "finger sense" that diagnosed my car without me knowing it.

Why am I selling it? well mainly cause wife is about to get out of school and will no longer need the bigger car. It was easy for her to haul all her school stuff around with the 4 door SUV. at the moment she hardly works and is bringing in about $600 a month. she's using about $300 a month in gas, so I decided I was tired of spending all that if she is the only one in the SUV its not needed.

I personally do not like women driving around in big SUV vehicles and they arent hauling around families. If you need it fine, but if it is just a status issue or a safety issue then it irritates me...that and the fact that women are bad drivers to begin with......oh sorry...did I say that...


The Passport has been very good to us and runs fine but she wants a car again and I dont want to buy a new one yet and neither does she so I am just selling the SUV for a cheap price and moving on so to speak. Might end up regretting it since everything on the Passport works including the AC..


I may run some Seafoam thru it. do you know where I would suck that stuff up into the intake on my 95 Passport?

I will do that this week just for heck of it.

thanks again bud!

Mike Z

[Blue Bowtie]

Don't put any SeaFoam in the fuel. Most fuel injector manufacturers, including Nippon-Denso, don't recommend putting water through their injectors. I doubt that SeaFoam is going to "solve" your problem or "help" anything.

The O² sensor may look new, but if it's been in service much more than 30,000 miles, it is probably a little weak on signal generation. Normally, it is not enough to notice any operational difference unless you are watching fuel mileage very closely. However, after that mileage, performance continues to degrade, so if your's is "looking new" at 60-70,000 miles, it may be time for a replacement. Only a test will reveal that.

Further, as Ramblin' stated, it may not remove any soot from the tailpipe. Whoever was shopping for a vehicle based on soot accumulation in the pipe is stuck in the '70s, and is never going to find the "pefectly running" vehicle unless it is new, and will then be disappointed within about 4,000 miles. Unless his/her finger is trained in some obscure black art of "automotive/stoiciometric/proctologist" voodoo that is under the radar for the rest of us, only an exhaust gas anaylsis is going to tell him/her what he thinks his finger might be showing. Even the on-board OBD system won't tell much if the sensors are not reliable.

Don't sweat it, and wait for a more reasonable, educated buyer.

[Ramblin Fever]

$300 in gas, wow!

She must be doing a lot of miles.

What's the mpg your rig is averaging?

I average a bit over 1k miles a month on the Rodeo, am only spending about $150-180/month, depending on whether or not we take a day/weekend trip.

Now in my Toyota p/up, that's averaging about $300-400/month, it's driven about 200-300 miles a day, sometimes more, sometimes a hair less.

[gentlejax2]

$300 was rough estimate but probably not far off. she drives alot from home to school and work when she works other than that she doesnt drive it much.

yes, the o2 is probably due but since I am selling the car at a loss I am not going to fix it. Going to let it go for about $3K -$2500 range.

dont know how her mileage is since she doesnt check it. got 160 on half tank the other day but she does lot of city stuff.

I wasnt worried about the exhaust but I was curious.


I wasnt going to put the Seafoam in the gas Iwas going to put it thru the intake and clean out the carbon in the intake.

done it in the 300ZX and also some other cars and it works. just need to find a suitable port to suck it into the intake . lots of people do it and it works.

I figured one of you guys knew what Iwas talking about..

well, I will not worry about it too much. wife has about a week of school left and then I will sell the Passport.

peace

Mike Z

[highlandlake]

Originally Posted by Blue Bowtie

Unless his/her finger is trained in some obscure black art of "automotive/stoiciometric/proctologist" voodoo that is under the radar for the rest of us, only an exhaust gas anaylsis is going to tell him/her what he thinks his finger might be showing.

Man, that made me laugh! Surprised the guy didn't whip out a $1.00 bill and hold it up to the tailpipe. Remember when that was a common practice for the valve medics in the used car lots?

[Ramblin Fever]

What kind of car are you getting to replace it? I take it you're gonna take the cash from the Rodeo and buy a used car?

Else wise, I don't really see you getting ahead of the money game if the Rodeo's already paid for. Even though cars do have much better mpg, an average new car is going for nothing less then $17k now, making the payments right around the amount you're using for gas on the Rodeo.

If it's not paid for though, or if you're buying an older used car, I can totally understand one getting rid of something they don't need.

Just be careful buying someone else's "used" car problems.

Have a friend who got rid of his '97 Isuzu Trooper (paid off) for the same reason - gas costs, however, he turned around and bought a brandnew Suzuki car of some-sort.

Granted his gas mileage is in the near 40mpg range, however, his payments are just as much as his previous gas bill on the Trooper, plus his insurance is more due to the newer car.

But I do agree there are a lot of suv & minivan owners who truly don't need them or the room, and what's the point of owning it if you don't need it.

By the way, 160 miles at 1/2 tank is really good for city driving.

Unfortunately, the Rodeo's and Isuzu's in general do not have a high resale value, especially at 160k miles, and if it's a 91-97 it's even lessor of a value due to age. You may not get the $3k, you're wanting.

My KBB value on my '97 with 155k miles, fully loaded, immaculant condition is only worth $1,700 dollars. Selling it personally, I'd probably only get $2-2,200 for it which would be a great loss to me, considering I know I can get at least another good 3-4yrs out of it. I better, I just put roughly $2k in a complete tune-up in everything from O2's to a waterpump.

These Rodeo's get better gas mileage then my Toyota p/up does, but it is 20yrs old.

Good luck to you, there are other Isuzu forums that you can post your for sale information on, two boards in particular are Isuzu fanatics that just may get you a quick sale.

FWIW - if you're not going to keep it, I personally wouldn't do anything more then you have to to sale it, otherwise, it's just that much more money you're going to be out of.

If it's running good, no CEL lights are on, call it good and slap a for sale sign on it.

[Gizmo42]

I am basically trying to sell it. the truck looks fantastic and it runs fine but I had a guy look at it and put his finger in tailpipe and it had black on it.

Cracks me up when people try to act like they know what they are doing. If you have emissions testing in your area he would have gotten alot better idea of how it runs from looking at the results of that.

My rodeo has black in the tail pipe and passes the treadmill type test here with flying colors. That was even before I changed plugs and air filter and cleaned the PCV and EGR. I'll probably change out the 2 front o2 sensors within the next year but only as maintenance since mine has 92k miles on it.

[anthonyn]

I wasnt going to put the Seafoam in the gas Iwas going to put it thru the intake and clean out the carbon in the intake.

done it in the 300ZX and also some other cars and it works. just need to find a suitable port to suck it into the intake . lots of people do it and it works.

I figured one of you guys knew what Iwas talking about..
peace

Mike Z

Seafoam or just plain distilled water works great to decarbonize the cylinders. I usually use the hose that goes from the throttle/intake to the brake booster. You can also just suck the seafoam thru the pcv valve. After the treatment my rodeo idles much better and has that extra pep.

[surferfletch]

Originally Posted by Ramblin Fever

My KBB value on my '97 with 155k miles, fully loaded, immaculate condition is only worth $1,700 dollars.

Yikes. I knew there was a reason I didn't research that. I have 50K left in this rig, I'm sure, and I'll enjoy driving it without a monthly payment.

[Ramblin Fever]

Originally Posted by surferfletch

. I have 50K left in this rig, I'm sure, and I'll enjoy driving it without a monthly payment.

You think that's all it's gonna get? An extra 50k? Gee, I'm hoping to get at least another 100k - so as long as I can keep other idiot car owners in their own lane.

Someone backed into my tailgate a week ago - thank goodness it didn't crack the paint, still irritates me though.

[surferfletch]

All depends on the 4L30-E.

[Ramblin Fever]

Originally Posted by surferfletch

All depends on the 4L30-E.

I agree. I figure though - now that I've discovered that the set-up of the design of the tranny doesn't intimidate me as badly as I thought it would - I'm gonna start doing partial drain/refills every 2nd-3rd oil change, i.e. 7-10k miles. Towing the boat will no longer be a part of it's summer life, and heavy mountain highway incline's will be avoided as much as possible - we'll find re-routes they can be fun though!

Here pretty soon too, it'll only get driven about 4-500 miles a month, averaging 6-7k in a year; wear and tear overall should drop incredibly. Give or take an extra 1k or so with our OTR summer adventures that lead us to places too small for our fullsize to fit.

I'm hoping with this plan, I can get another 11-12yrs out of it - could be wishin', but not impossible, afterall I still currently own and DD our 20yr old Toyota truck that still has less then 300k on it. Barely! And, remarkably, for all it's endured in it's life, less then $8k in total overall expense in maintenance and repairs.

We can only hope - huh?? Here's wishing to no car payments for at least 5yrs though, just got the fullsize paid off and lovin' it!!